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As much as I love guitar parts built from fast and hyper-syncopated power-chord figures, some of the heaviest riffs I’ve ever heard are built from single-note patterns alone. Legendary metal bands such as Metallica and Megadeth, as well as relatively newer groups like Children of Bodom, At the Gates and In Flames, have used crushing single-note riffs as the centerpieces of their most powerful songs. In this month’s column, I’d like to focus on how to construct interesting, heavy and deceptively complex single-note riffs.

American music—blues, jazz, R&B, country and all the rest—were formed from the blending and reblending of African, Caribbean and European musical elements in the social cauldron of these United States. New Orleans, Louisiana—a.k.a. NOLA—was a crucial first point of cultural contact and cited mainly as the birthplace of jazz, but by the early Fifties, New Orleans was also home to a distinctive style of rhythm and blues. The difference was in the rhythm itself. Records coming out of the city began featuring an unusual blend of ingredients like tresillo, triplets, backbeat, two-beat and second line (or parade beat).

Last time we scoped out the diminished-sounding root/flat-fifth chord shape (Figure 1), a tension-building power chord I use in the intro to "Rise" [Vulgar Display of Power]. This time around we're gonna get into some more tricky-sounding diads. (a diad is a two note chord: a power chord that can add extra color and dimension to your rhythm playing.)

Thrash developed in the early Eighties as a subgenre of the broader heavy metal category and gained momentum throughout the decade. From the pioneering “Big Four” bands—Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax—to Exodus, Testament, Overkill and Sepultura, thrash metal pushed the boundaries of aggression, speed and stamina with fast, muted open-string-based riffs and furious lead breaks.

"Jeff Buckley release only one full-length studio album in his lifetime, 1994's Grace," writes Dale Turner, "but in the 15 years since his passing on May 29, 1997, his influence endures, often cited as an inspiration by artist like Radiohead, Chris Cornell, Muse, Coldplay and a host of newer acts."

In part 4 we covered quarter-note triplets, 16th-note triplets and sextuplets and learned how to create tricked-out hemiola licks by taking a repeating note pattern and changing its rhythm so that the pattern begins, or "pops," on a different part of the beat each time it's repeated (rhythmic displacement). Now we're going to dive deeper into the rhythmic realm and explore a new subdivision, quintuplets-five evenly spaced notes per beat-and learn how to create psychedelic "nightmare" licks.

Well, gang, here it is: the final installment of Chopin's Piano Concerto in A minor, Opus No. 2. Those of you who have braved the storm of 16th notes over the past two columns have earned the right to pat yourselves on the back. You're going to get a bit of a reprieve this time, because, at the beginning of this section, Chopin restates the first six bars of the piece and then adds bars 15-17 of the opening section for good measure (use my column Romancing the Fretboard, Part 1 as a reference).

In the video below, Janus guitarist Mike Tyranski shows you how to play “In Flames,” a song off Janus' upcoming album, Nox Aeris, which will be released March 27 on REALID Records. Nox Aeriscan be pre-ordered from iTunes here.